Alabama's House Joint Resolution 78 (PDF), introduced and referred to the House Rules Committee on February 23, 2017, would, if adopted, ostensibly urge state and local education authorities to promote the academic freedom of science teachers in the state's public schools. "Biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming, and human cloning" are specifically identified as controversial.

NCSE's deputy director Glenn Branch contributed a column, entitled "It's About Time To Teach Evolution Forthrightly," to the February 2017 issue of The Science Teacher, a special issue devoted to evolution.

A pair of bills introduced in the Florida legislature — House Bill 989 and Senate Bill 1210 — are ostensibly aimed at empowering taxpayers to object to the use of specific instructional materials in the public schools, for example on the grounds that they fail to provide "a noninflammatory, objective, and balanced viewpoint on issues." There is reason to believe that evolution and climate change are among the targets.

Indiana's Senate Resolution 17, which targets the teaching of evolution in Indiana's public schools, was passed on a 7-3 vote by the Senate Committee on Education and Career Development on February 22, 2017.